A drugs runner who joined a gang at the last minute to help a pal swamp the city with cannabis was busted when cops smashed the £25 million operation.

A drugs runner who joined a gang at the last minute to help a pal swamp the city with cannabis was busted when cops smashed the £25 million operation.

Bungling drugs mule Donald James became the UK fixer for Amsterdam-based drug gang boss Keith Harrison as he prepared to bring a major shipment into the country.

He even spent £5,000 of his own savings to help buy a speed boat The Sundancer to bring the haul of cannabis from the Continent.

But as he put the finishing touches to his plan, detectives swooped to arrest everyone involved in a series of co-ordinated raids in Birmingham, Holland and Belgium.

The National Crime Squad had weeks earlier arrested other gang members including the original fixer, David Handley, nabbed on his wedding day at Gretna Green.

James, 56, from Kingshurst, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to his part in the conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and will be sentenced on Monday.

A Squad insider said: "James got involved at the wrong time just as we were ready to break up the gang. Now he is going to pay the price."

National Crime Squad officers had been keeping tabs on the gang for months in a joint operation with Dutch police.

Harrison, originally from Coventry, was lying low in Holland after going on the run from prison where he was part way through a seven-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter and drugs offences.

From his base in Holland, Harrison had created an organised business to flood the UK with drugs.

Police in the UK were tipped off by counterparts in Holland who had been tapping his phone and were able to stop the drugs as they were being delivered around the country and take out key members of the group.

Becoming more desperate, he recruited James, an old friend who had been involved in petty crime together when they were younger, as his UK-based lieutenant.

James helped by a boat and organise a skipper, nicknamed The Geezer, to make a run to the Continent to collect a shipment.

But minder, Little Baz who had been sent along to keep watch on the drugs became sea-sick and the return journey was delayed for a day.

Police then swooped to arrest them all.

"Harrison had known James for many years, they were old buddies. He turned to him when he needed someone he could trust to use as his lieutenant."

Det Insp John Cudlipp, who led the investigation said: "They were ready to ship every kind of drug, with the exception of heroin and they were destined for the Midlands area.

"We have taken out an entire network from top to bottom and no doubt this operation had a major impact on the drugs market in the region."

More than £25 million worth of Class A and B drugs were seized during the investigation and a total of 33 people have been arrested.